Tales of Farunasa: Gods and Adventurers

7. Gods and Necromancy

 The group went their separate ways for rest of the day, doing some easy quests before they are due to meet up.

 Next morning after they met up, still next to Burkhard's smithy, the group was met with a strange scene. A Drow on a black horse arguing with a group of Elven Paladins. Kelnar must have recognised the Drow because he seemed to be on edge about the whole thing. Soon the Paladins took a notice of Thavin, because they started ignoring the Drow in favour of degrading Thavin.
 One elf spoke first, „oh look, isn't this that misguided piece of rock from three years earlier?"
 „You are right Faer, it is," agreed another one, they certainly didn't notice that Thavin was giggling quietly.
 Thavin looked the first elf, Faer, dead in the eyes and spoke in a serious tone, „if I am a misguided piece of rock, what are you? Burnt pieces of wood?"
 The two elves stopped to assess the situation. Soon the second elf replied, „no, we are no pieces of wood! You are just a dumb rock!"
 Thavin presented to the two elves The Heart of Luminus, „I saved an Elemental, what did you do? Oh I know, nothing of note!"
 The two elves started apologizing for their behaviour and even apologized to the Drow, although rest of their group didn't, but these two certainly know not to bother Thavin now.
 „What was that about Thavin," asked Athel and looked at him.
 Thavin hid the heart before he responded, „part of my backstory, nothing major."
 The Drow approached the group, taking a good look before taking a bow in surprise, „my lord!"
 „Keep it down, Illyss, why are you here anyway," Kelnar looked around in a hurry, hoping nobody heard.
 Illyss nodded before replying, „my lord, your father is dying. You need to return at once."
 Kelnar looked at his companions before looking at Illyss, „I cannot, I agreed on venturing to Elemental Forest with these travelers."
 „My lord, this is urgent," Illyss was insistent, but yielded to Kelnar's wishes, „alright, but let me accompany you."
 „I am afraid I can't, I need someone to deliver a letter to my father and you are the only one in this town I trust with making sure it is delivered quickly," responded sadly Kelnar and handed Illyss an envelope.
 Illyss took it and looked at Kelnar, „I will deliver this letter, but please once you are done in Elemental Forest make haste to Ablia."
 „I will, I contemplated going and you convinced me I need to at least say goodbye," said Kelnar and looked at Revio. It was clear that Kelnar was uneasy, maybe not ready to return just yet on his own.
 Revio smiled at him, „I'll come with you if you want Kelnar, just say the word."
 „You are way kinder than you need to be, my treasure," Kelnar seemed to ease up as he gently slid a knuckle of his index finger on Revio's cheek. Revio leaned into the touch. Illyss reached into one of his saddle bags from which he took a sealed envelope and a fur lined cloak.
 „Here, I was supposed to give it to You, My Lord, it is from your brother," Illyss handed Kelnar the cloak and envelope, before looking out of town, „I am afraid I need to leave now."
 „That's fine, before you go, please tell my brother I miss him and take full responsibility on what happened," said Kelnar, took what was handed to him and backed away, „see you soon, Illyss."
Illyss cued his horse and made his way out of town, but before he was completely out of their hearing reach he shouted, „safe travels!"
 „Safe travels, Illyss, safe travels," murmured Virion, like silent prayer, one to aid someone on their journey. After Illyss left, before they set out, the group turned to Kelnar.
 „Kelnar, I hope you won't mind us tagging along with you to Ablia, we just want to make sure you make it in one piece," said Larrel, before smiling and taking notice of Burkhard by his forge.
 „I was actually hoping you would, there is a lot of places that might peak your interest," Kelnar smiled as he said that. And then notification popped up:

New Quest Received! Rightful Heir: accompany Kelnar Silverwell on his way home. Reward: Variable. Time: 10 days.
Timer inactive.

New Quest Received! Ablia of Wonder: clear the most important and treasured locations in Ablia from monsters. Reward: Variable.
Quest Inactive.

 How interesting, they got two new quests, one is timed. But why are the rewards variable was beyond any of them, most of all Revio, who got a timed quest for the first time.
 „What are Timed Quests? The description isn't that clear," asked Revio. The beta players exchanged a look.
 „Exactly what it sounds like, you have a quest with a timer," said Athel and took a moment to think, „if I recall correctly when they were first introduced they were among the hard and very well rewarded, better than other quests but that seems to be equalised by now."
 „Weren't Timed Quests also rare? I seem to recall us getting only one before we took a break until the game released," mentioned Virion, the rest nodded at that.
„Well, we can check the game Wiki and see for ourselves, somebody is bound to have had a Timed Quest before us," Athel suggested and it was then Kelnar began paying attention to them again.
 „I think we wasted enough time standing around," Kelnar was significantly more stressed than before. Clearly the AI wants them to leave for Elemental Forest and propably vents it's frustration via Kelnar.
 „Kelnar," Revio tried to be kind as he said it, but Kelnar didn't seem to be backing down anytime soon, „at least let us check the map, so we don't get lost on the way."
 „You can do that on the way," it was definitely not Kelnar who said it, but it did come out of his mouth.
 „Let's just go, before this gets ugly," said Thavin and everyone agreed with him.

 Their group set out with Kelnar at the front, because unlike the rest of them, Kelnar knows which direction leads to Elemental Forest. Virion decided to take out the map, so they can all take a look at their route. As soon as they all looked at the map a notification popped up in front of them:

 Travel destination set. Unlocking level: 10. Recommended level: 10. Levels until unlocking: 3.

 „Seems we need to level up before we get there," said Larrel and swiped the notification away.
 „I think that might be why we needed to go," Thavin seemed unsure and toggled his class tree, „we might also get a head start on our class trees thanks to this quest chain."
 „I thought it takes until level 15 to start working on the class tree with all the options open," said puzzled Revio. Athel gave him a warm smile.
 „Not really, it is only at that level people usually make their way into Elemental Forest to take that quest, but we are already on our way there at level 7," explained Virion and hid the map away, „you can take the quest at level 10 and don't need to finish it in Elemental Forest, but people who go there take more quests than this particular one, and it makes them stay in the area for the entirety of the quest."
 They would speak more but Kelnar stopped and so did they, waiting for him to move again. They assumed the AI propably got into some strange conversation that made it stop moving some characters for a short period of time. But it was when Virion went to check if Kelnar's okay, he realised that Kelnar was in pain and couldn't move. Virion all worried looked at the rest, „we might need to cut our travel short for now, at least until Kelnar's okay."
 Revio took a step forward and looked at Virion, „what happened?"
 „He can't move out of pain," as soon as the words left Virion's mouth Kelnar went down to his knees, „what?"
 „This energy," Athel trailed off for a moment before all confused said what he wanted, „Yarus?"
 „Now that I think about it, he did say that prayer from the grimoire in the evening," said Revio and kneeled at Kelnar's side. Athel's Grimoire flew up and opened on the page about necromancy, a line of text appearing.
 Athel was shocked, but started to read out loud, „'Many a Necromancer tried and failed to call to the gods. But in this new age of adventurers one succeeded. His heart is pure and intentions clear as glass, thereby I give him what he so desperately needs. It is Drowlord from Ablia,
Kelnar Silverwell.'"